Headlines – Page 1143
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Jurisdiction
Conflict of laws - Challenge to jurisdiction - Civil and commercial matters Antonio Gramsci Shipping Corporation and others v Recoletos Ltd and others: Queen's Bench Division, Commercial Court (Mr Justice Teare): 12 July 2012 ...
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Competition
Abuse of dominant position - Claimant company operating bus services on certain routes 2 Travel Group plc (in liquidation) v Cardiff City Transport Services Ltd: Competition Appeal Tribunal (Lord Carlile of Berriew CBE, QC, Peter Freeman CBE, QC and ...
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Fighting fraud
Angela Neale’s letter is a timely reminder that vigilance is key in everybody’s efforts to prevent property fraud.
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Tender points
In anticipation of the new legal aid contracts coming into force in April next year, I recently submitted a couple of tenders for new contracts, one of which was to deal with telephone-only advice in family law. Part of the pre-qualification questionnaire awarded points based on experience in providing a ...
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Retired out
Ken Clarke, at 72, confirms that judges will have to retire at 70 otherwise ‘politicians or somebody else will have to start appraising their performance’.
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Living and learning
In a tough market where budgets are tight and clients are demanding more for less, lawyers are having to broaden their skill set to stay in the game. Black letter law is not enough - practitioners need to be able to relate it to clients’ practical problems, deal with risk ...
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New draft code does not go far enough
Can we afford to prosecute people any more? We have already seen the government’s proposals to introduce what it calls ‘deferred’ prosecution agreements, under which companies that commit economic crimes will be able to escape criminal charges, indefinitely, if they agree to pay penalties and comply with other conditions. Last ...
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‘Baby barrister’ threat to solicitors
Barristers with under three years’ practising experience will be able to take instructions directly from clients if the Bar Standards Board’s latest plan for the extension of public access rules is approved. The board heard last week that ‘baby barristers’ may be the only representation ...
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Law firm profit divide continues to widen
Revenue has fallen at a quarter of firms over the last year, and the gap in both profitability and growth in turnover between London and the rest of the UK continued to widen. In most firms headcount has remained static or fallen. These are the ...
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Magic circle retention rates hold up
Magic circle firm Clifford Chance has retained 48 of 62 trainees, a retention rate of 77%, it revealed this week, in a clutch of announcements of trainee retention figures at City and international firms.
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Victims face trek as violence courts shut
Court closures are forcing victims and witnesses in domestic violence cases to travel more than 50 miles to and from hearings, the ...
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Solicitors warned of divorce claims
Divorce solicitors could face thousands of compensation claims in cases where pensions were undervalued in a divorce settlement, a pensions consultant has claimed. Divorce LifeLine suggests that since pension sharing was introduced in December 2000, around 750,000 people, in half the divorces across the country, could ...
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Dramatic changes to family migration
On 11 June, the Home Office announced the latest round of changes to the UK Immigration Rules. The broad reforms aim to restrict the ability of non-European Economic Area (EEA) migrants to enter or remain in the UK under the family migration route, and to curtail the use of article ...
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Games masters
As you watch the Olympic opening ceremony tomorrow night, spare a thought for the thousands of backroom heroes who made the 2012 London Games possible. We refer of course to the legal teams and draftspeople behind the wall of enabling (and disabling) legislation put in place for the purpose of ...
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Latest flame
A third Olympic flame torchbearer from the legal profession has come to Obiter’s attention. Matt King, a trainee solicitor in the personal injury team at Stewarts Law was given the stint in Dunstable after being nominated by his grandad. A rugby accident at the age of 17 left King paralysed ...
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Co-op/Lloyds deal will treble the group’s banking presence and offer golden opportunity
BBC business editor Robert Peston hailed the Co-op’s acquisition of 632 bank branches from Lloyds as the ‘deal of the millennium’. It is hard to disagree, and not just because it picked them up cheap.
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Increasing selection in state schools the best way to improve legal diversity
by Lucinda Moule, managing director at legal recruitment agency Laurence Simons Elitism is a huge problem in the legal industry. Research by Laurence Simons in 2010 found that 15% of lawyers still come from public schools that educate only 2% of the population.
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Legal insurance should not confuse clients
If there are two words guaranteed to send any audience to sleep in an instant, they are these: Annual Report. By God, they are dull - I should know, I have written enough of the damn things. You know that very few people are going to read them but you ...
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Good ideas for hard times
Less than two weeks ago and fresh into my presidency the Gazette reported that I would be using LinkedIn as a way for the Law Society to hear about members’ ideas on how to face market challenges in our sector. Since then, I have been ...